The Unblinded Prophet

I Remember

Terri quietly sipped her tea and Fox's table. It had taken a while for him to find her amid the vastness of the Outskirts, but finally she was home. She looked slightly different than she had before, her eyes were a muddy brown and her hair had a red tinge towards the ends, no matter if she cut it or not.

"Maybe you aren't quite human this time around," Fox had suggested after Terri's fifth attempt to cut off the red ends. She had just scoffed in reply.

Fox walked into the kitchen carry a grocery bag filled with sweets. Terri narrowed her eyes at him and inspected his frame.

"Are sweets all you eat?"

He didn't reply.

"Fox, we talked about this."

"You remember that?"

Terri froze. She hadn't even realized she had remembered that. It just tumbled out of her mouth. Yet now, if she thought about it, images and snippets of prior conversations arose in her mind.

"Yeah. I guess I do." She continued to sip her tea.

"Do you remember all the dates we had?" He was staring at her now, a deep passion and pain in his eyes.

"I remember..." Terri paused for a minute. "I remember the time we sat on the roof of this very apartment building and stared at the stars and tried to find constellations."

"That was one of my favorite."

"And I remember the dinner date we had a month after. And I...I remember what happened after the dinner date."

Fox looked away and busied himself with emptying his bag of groceries.

"I also remember that we were going to be parents."

Fox froze. Tears were filling up his eyes and he was shaking.

"And I remember how happy you were."

"Please, stop."

"Why?"

"Because we can't have that back. Not for a very long time."

"Fox, what do you mean?"

"I need time for my heart to even comprehend that you're back. I can't go rushing back into things. You got a second chance for a reason, don't you think maybe there's something you need to do here?"

Terri got up and wrapped her arms around Fox. "I need to be here for you."

"You know that isn't what I meant."

They just stood there in silence for a while, enjoying the fact that the other was right next to them.

"I also remember that you still aren't off the hook about those snacks, sir!" Terri said after a while, prodding Fox in the side. "Explain yourself!"

Fox smiled and sighed.